PORTLAND – Over the first 23 games of the 2015-16 regular season, New Orleans has played much better in the first three quarters of contests than in the final period. As a result, the Pelicans rank third from the bottom of the NBA in two critical offensive categories – turnovers and field-goal percentage -according to Alvin Gentry. Saturday’s defeat at Chicago was a case in point, with the Pelicans (6-17) turning a six-point lead entering the final quarter into a 98-94 defeat to the Bulls. Chicago quickly erased its hole by forcing empty New Orleans possessions and draining three straight three-pointers to open the fourth.
“The one thing we’ve struggled with in the fourth quarter is turnovers,” Gentry said prior to Monday’s game at Portland. “We’re not a high-turnover team overall. I think we’re eighth in the league, but in the fourth quarter we’re 28th. That’s way, way, way too high. It’s almost 4.5 turnovers in the fourth quarter per game. We’ve (also) got to get the ball in the basket, (because) we’re 28th in field-goal percentage in the fourth quarter. Those two don’t match up with trying to win the game, so we’ve got to do a better job.”
Other notes from pregame at Moda Center:
Gentry said he wants to stick with the team’s starting lineup from Saturday’s game. That group is Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon, Alonzo Gee, Anthony Davis and Alexis Ajinca. The Chicago game was Ajinca’s fifth start of the season…
Gentry on the Pelicans struggling on the road this season, with just one victory: “You’ve got to be solid defensively and we’ve struggled in that department. If you look through this league, the teams that have been successful on the road are good defensive teams. That’s number one. Number two, we have not shot the ball well at all. That’s a bad combination. We’re playing better than we did (early in the season).”
